The fog hung over the land, thick and heavy like nightfall, and in the distance, the faint shuffling sounds of feet, dragging along the dirt disturbed the silence. To her left, a crumbling graveyard, to her right, a church with broken windows. The path ended here, but if she turned back a few yards, she could continue along the second path. The shuffling sound came from somewhere back there, behind her.

She hurried to the church door, praying it was unlocked.

The door stuck fast as she twisted the doorknob and pulled hard. She tried again, bracing one hand against the rough, unpainted wall. The door creaked in protest, but slowly it opened, dust showering her head, cobwebs sweeping her face.

"Atchoo!"

She swiped at the cobwebs and stumbled across the thresh hold. The only light came from the daylight pouring through broken window panes and the open door. Otherwise, the room was dark and empty. A few dusty church pews and a pulpit had been pushed together at the far end of the room. A chalkboard leaned against the wall, white handwriting scrawled across its surface, virtually illegible. A candelabra with burned out candle stubs sat directly in front of it on the pulpit.

She started to turn, to leave the dusty tomb of a church, but stopped as the long length of white caught her eye. The unburned candle lay on it's side beside the candelabra. It wasn't a flashlight, but it would do nicely. She tested the floorboards with her foot, gently easing her weight onto it before hurrying to retrieve her prize. She tucked it into her purse, in the small pouch beside her handgun.

She glanced at the blackboard.

The white letters were smudged and hidden under dust, but Sarah could make out a few words here and there.

"...Sit thou silent, and-------- in-- darkness. O daughter ---th- Ch-ld---;for thou shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms...Isaiah 47:5..."

The rest trailed off into smears and smudges and nonsense.

"Strange," she said.

She wondered what it meant and why it had been written and left on the blackboard. Such a strange and cryptic message, but the thought lasted seconds before she heard it. Behind her, a loud Thump-whack! Thump-whack! She jumped, startled, and turned. The sound was louder each time and closer, thump-whack! A shadow darkened the doorway and a low, unearthly moan disturbed the silence. The creature shuffled inside on two legs, a long tail slapping the ground behind after each shuffling step. It's skin was the bluish color of a drowning victim, and it's head was misshapen and deformed, with no eyes, no nose, and only a few jagged teeth for a mouth.

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the thing. In all her life, during all her strange little adventures, she had never seen anything like that. Even Underground, even in her darkest place, the creatures had never looked like 'that'. The thing moaned again, louder, almost angry as it moved towards her, shuffling faster.

Her heart shot into her throat as a thought crossed her mind, the thought of just what the creature intended to do when it reached her. One hand fumbled into her purse, her fingers brushing against the candle before closing around the hand gun.

Yellow slime dripped from the creatures jagged teeth, oozing like a thick pus. It's tail slapped the ground as it reared its head up. The moan that it let loose filled the room, high and mournful and starving.

She pulled th gun free and aimed at the creature, at the sorry excuse for a head.

But it moved faster than she'd have guessed it could, it's teeth digging into her leg in one sharp bite. Pain and revulsion overwhelmed her; she felt her stomach fight against that nice lunch she's had not an hour earlier. The creature pulled her, tore at her leg, and she hit it with the butt of the gun. The creature let go, stumbling back, roaring, and she fired almost blindly towards the sound.

One. Two Three.

The creature lurched, it's body going slack as it fell to the ground dead.

A sharp pain cut through her chest and a haze fell over her eyes, reminding her to take a breath. She waited for what felt like forever, her lungs filling with air and then exhaling, one hand pressed against the bite, stemming the flow of blood, while the other kept the gun aimed at the lifeless body.

The creature twitched.

Her finger squeezed the trigger.

A black pool spread beneath the body. It was dead.

The gun shook in her hand and she hurried around the body and into the light. Floorboards protested loudly beneath her feet, but held her weight. Outside it was quiet and still, though the shadows that darkened the graveyard seemed more ominous than before. She ignored her pain and hurried to retrace her steps, to find the path that would lead her into town and hopefully safety as well.

But after a few minutes of walking when the town came into view, she realized just how foolish that hope had been.